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[L0rd L33t]

Out of the four non-randomized megabeasts, how do you rank them in the threat level of your fort?

As a newer player I have yet to encounter them, but have read plenty of stories as well as have ran arena tests. As far as Megabeast vs Megabeast, Dragons seem to completely trump the others courtesy of their fire and Bronze colossi are second place, being completely immune to Rocs and Hydras. Although in a Dwarf vs Megabeats, I'd think bronzes would be the most dangerous as even wooden shields block dragon fire extremely well (dragons are still great fighters... But they clearly lack the defensive benifets of Collossi).

This leads me to Rocs and Hydras. Besides the niche ability of Rocs to fly into your fortress if you were silly enough to leave gaping holes in the roof, these two seem to be quite unotable. This kind of saddens me as they are really cool monsters. I read in the wiki that hydras can now attack 7 times in one turn with thier head, which I would think would make it a dwarf mowing machine. But alas, I have yet to see hydra related devastation stories. Rocs fall in a similar boat. I think it would be really !!FUN!! if they could snatch your dwarves (or other unlucky creatures) in their huge claws then drop them from high in the sky to their doom!

Tldr: Dragons and Colossi are potential fortress enders, Rocs and Hydras seem to be quite less so. How could we buff the latter two to be more scary?

[Redman the Communist]

If I had to give my personal opinion, I'd rank the danger level of the four as such:

1. Bronze Bully
2. Dragon
3. Roc
4. Hydra

The reason I would put them in this order, is because Dragons may have huge offensive capabilities, but a few ballista shots lodged in its chest, and it's down for the count from pain alone (Assuming you don't puncture the heart or mangle the brain.) But Bronce Collossi are so much more devestating, they don't feel pain, no fear, no exert, can't be poisoned, most deadly weaponry that would normally kill something wouldn't do as much to this monster, they wont even ignite or melt (Although they can get stuck.) And Rocs before Hydra because their flight makes them extremely hard to trap or hit with arrows, if not for the Dragon's fire, I'd put them in second. Never had a Hydra attack my fort before, but in Adventure Mode, well trained soldiers can usually stand a chance if they keep dodging or blocking, same with player characters.

Tldr: Rocs are fine as they are for me, but I feel if Hydras actually needed a buff (which I don't think they do at all) it would be either no pain, or regeneration of some kind (although in either case I'm sure it would be a true nightmare fighting them)

[Spinning Fly]

Fortunately (or sadly, depending on how you look at it) since all of them are not trapavoid, all you'd ever need to stop them is a single cage trap. Plus if you have a world with a lot of beasts and you get lucky, you might even have a breeding pair of dragons or rocs, which could be interesting.

Dragons are the only ones that can really mess your fort up if you aren't prepared. If you have basically anything going on above ground, you can expect it to be obliterated by a forest fire. A colossus might beat up a few of your dwarves, but once everyone's hiding behind a line of cage traps it's not a threat.

I've found rocs to be rather slow-moving and surprisingly easy to kill. I've had 2 of them spawn in my latest fort. First time I forgot that I had shifted my barracks to an open air compound, so the roc flew in there and got rekt by the 25-odd dwarves training there. Second time I remembered to shift all my troops indoors, so I sat and waited for the roc to enter my cage traps. He refused to do so and just flew up and down for months on end, until a goblin siege arrived and killed him (with just 1 goblin casualty).

[Libash_Thunderhead]

What a shame, I have played DF for years but haven't seen a dragon nor a hydra in fortress mode.

[Somebodyelse]

What a shame, I have played DF for years but haven't seen a dragon nor a hydra in fortress mode.

Same, also no collossus on my end either. And the one time I saw a Roc was on embark in the middle of a pile of bodies.

[Saiko Kila]

I would rank them, from the worst:
1. dragon
2. bronze colossus
3. roc
4. hydra (or ex aequo with roc)

Dragon can destroy some thing you would think are not destroyable (namely bridges) even without really trying, and start fires which can avenge it posthumously. Bronze colossus basically needs an experienced or lucky axedwarf to become a statue. Rocs are annoying because or flying (they like to dodge/temporarily flee into air, and you dwarves constantly cancel attacking because of that), but aren't that hard. Hydras may be the easiest, I had hydras killed in first shot, by speardwarves. They can also just bleed to death. Of course even hydras are capable of downing you dwarf in one shot if they are lucky.

[Redman the Communist]

Fortunately (or sadly, depending on how you look at it) since all of them are not trapavoid, all you'd ever need to stop them is a single cage trap.

Yeah, I forgot about that. The worst thing that can ever happen to your fort though, is have a steel forgotten beast smash up your fort. And if you really want, you can give all the four [TRAPAVOID].

[khearn]

I still remember my first dragon. I was really impressed by the flame animations, and was fearing the worst. Then it caught up with a axedwarf that was caught outside the fortress. They danced around a few moments, then the axedwarf neatly lopped off the dragon's head. Talk about anticlimactic.

I'd pretty much agree with earlier comments, though. Dragons can cause a real mess with fire if you're in a forested area and do much outside. I pity anyone with an aboveground fort. But they can be glass flamethrowers if you have anywhere near decent troops.

Bronze Colossi can be tough, especially if you don't have steel-equipped troops. But even a dwarf standing on the ground can take the head off of a 10+ meter tall colossus in one shot if he gets lucky. I guess they have to bend over to swing at dwarves.

Haven't had much experience with rocs and hydras. I generally build a citadel on the surface around my main entrance and don't roof it over, so you'd think I'd get attacked by rocs a lot, given murphy's law and all. But I hardly ever see them. I don't recall ever having to deal with a hydra at all. I guess that hydras usually get taken out by other megabeasts during worldgen.

[Melting Sky]

One thing that often works against dragons is they are very, very long lived so it is not likely you are dealing with anything much larger than a youngling. Elder dragons (1000 year old ones) are MUCH more dangerous than the baby ones since they can actually take a punch.

My personal ranking in fortress mode would put dragons at the top of the list. Their fire will take out any dwarf without a shield, they often fly over many of your usual defenses and they are capable of melting even magma safe bridges and other constructions. If you are in a heavily wooded area they can pretty much nuke the entire surface of your embark with the ensuing forest fire. Although we often face baby dragons all it takes is a couple of ill placed fire blasts to unleash !!chaos!!.

I think the Colossus and Roc are probably tied for second. The rock is relatively weak but it flies so it can often avoid your cage traps and pick off a couple of fisher dwarves. The Colossus is an incredibly tough fighter, but all it takes is stepping on a cage trap made of twigs and it's taken care of. If you somehow get caught off guard and actually have to fight the thing properly, a Bronze Colossus will treat your dwarves' heads like watermelons at a Galliger show. If they get hit they will be mangled.

Hydras are strong fighters but they have the same weakness as the Colossus in that it can't fly. Although it's offense is better it's defense is no where near as good as the bronze bruiser.

[Wilm0chimp]

If you aren't seeing megabeasts in DF mode, you need to carefully look at your world gen settings. Long world gens often see all megabeasts go extinct, especially as there are only a handful placed to begin with. Change worldgen stopping at <50% megabeasts dead and maybe edit worldgen to have more megabeast caves.

I can recall a number of forts where I checked legends and there was basically nothing interesting left alive.

[Lordhermitcrab]

I was once trading stuff at the depot, and then a roc decided to visit, conveniently. It was a lot of fun.

The roc immediately headed towards the depot, and instantly bit the head off of one merchant and ripped the guts out of another. However, combined with the force of my military and the sparse trade-guards, the roc was instantly ripped apart. Disappointing really.

I'd agree that rocs were the lowest on the list.

[TheHossofMoss]

I've never experienced Hydras, Rocs, or a Bronze Colossus in Fortress Mode, but here's my list. Bear in mind though, that having Legendary warriors make short work of any of these, but alas...

1). Bronze Colossi (As hard as it was to defeat one in Adventure mode, I imagine it is just as difficult in Fortress mode, if not more)
2). Dragons (Battles with dragons only seem to go bad if the engagement field is flammable, for me at least)
3). Hydrae (I've never faced one, but surely they are a bit tougher than a Cyclops)
4). Cyclops/Ettins (Chop the legs, chop the head)
5). Rocs (It was really easy with my adventurer Hammerlord to kill it, so imagine a legendary squad could dispatch it even faster)

[Random_Dragon]

I guess I'll go ahead and rank the megabeasts in my own order, yeah.

1: Bronze Colossus. Pure whupass in a can. Yes, dragonfire will melt it. No, it won't make the situation any better until the thing finally falls apart.

Tied for 2: Hydra and Dragon. Hydras last much longer in a fight due to immunity to pain and redundant heads. Dragonfire is deadly, but a shield can mitigate fire a lot better than it can mitigate 7 simultaneous bite attacks. But a failed block means 1 dorf ripped to pieces versus 1 dorf becoming Fun Incarnate, and all that flammable stuff around them (read: even your raised drawbridges) still suffers from the flames.

3: Roc. They're more the Fragile Speedster of the megabeast world. While they can royally fuck up a dwarf, they're as vulnerable to getting shot up as dragons, and they don't even get the marginal extra defenses scales give over skin. Plus, any fort vulnerable to a flying enemy would've long since learned their lesson, not just from fliers but also from anything that can climb.

I would nudge hydras down a rank in Adventure Mode (bumping rocs down to number 4), because it's a lot easier to aim for the parts that'll actually hobble them. Additionally, the greater risk of failing to block dragonfire (certain death via melting, versus almost certain death via losing whatever body part just got bit off) is magnified when there's only one target that needs to melt to end the game, versus however many dwarves your outpost would have.

If I want to rank semi-megabeasts, I'd go...

1: Ettin. Again, being immune to pain and ye olde head trauma goes a long way in a fight, barely enough in my opinion to edge out the main advantage

2: Minotaur. Weak But Skilled. They're the smallest semi-megabeast, and just as vulnerable to pain as the remaining 2, but natural combat skills are a massive advantage if they survive long enough to have an opportunity to exploit that. Unless you get lucky and they take a liking to smacking people with stolen clothing.

Tied for 3: Giant and Cyclops. They're close to the same size, don't have any particular tricks up their sleeve, and aren't immune to pain.

In Adventure Mode I would just barely nudge the cyclops down to number 4, as it's marginally easier to go for the eye and blind a cyclops, compared to any creature with 2 eyes.

[quekwoambojish]

@khearn- I remember seeing Dragon fire for the first time too, it was quite a surprise in how cool it looked in what normally are some mundane graphics.

As for Dragons being dangerous though, most of my worlds are genned <100 years, so they're most likely the size of a deer when they attack me /: Not very scary. I'm also an especially fond user of marks dwarves, which rip up dragons pretty easily.

Collossi though tend to be more of an issue for me for that very reason (marks dwarves aren't too helpful against them). Usually I'm too lazy to training room my melee dwarves up to legendary as well.

I'm not even going to mention cage traps...'Defeating' anything with a cage trap and telling other people about it, is like that one friend who uses Tinder and brags about 'getting girls'. (Unless you're trying to get a breeding pair)

[Saiko Kila]

There's one sin dragons are guilty of which I just can't forgive: they trample my lawn.

Also a problem with all of these, but most important for rocs and dragons (because of breeding), is they rarely live long enough to be much fun, if you use standard length history (250 years). I don't like short histories, but it's hard to get the beasts without them. But indeed, older dragons are funnier.